"Showtime," by Jeff Pearlman

This came out today:

http://www.amazon.com/Showtime-Kareem-Angeles-Lakers-Dynasty/dp/1592407552/ref=pd_sim_b_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=04Y85S2FDSVKW5RY3DFK

I guess it's probably not worth its own thread, typically, but it's the follow-up to his uber-controversial Walter Payton book.

Pearlman's books are always a terrific read, so I'm looking forward to this one.

 

I'd like to read this too...

 

Be interesting to see if any squeaky-clean public reputations get really dinged here.

Magic being an insane horndog fucking anything that moved is probably a given.

 

I heard Pearlman on the radio talking about the book today, and that aspect of Magic's life seems to be thoroughly covered, yeah.

Best anecdote I heard, and there were plenty to choose from: Spencer Haywood eventually getting into a 12 step program for his drug addiction, and as part of making amends he went to a Loyola Marymount practice so he could apologize to Paul Westhead for hiring a hit man to kill him.

 

I love, LOVE Pearlman's books. He may be the Kitty Kelley of sports writers but, damn, the gossip is memorable. Cannot wait to read it.

 

I bought it today and am really looking forward to it. Starts off with a great anecdote about what a sleazeball Jack Kent Cooke was. That said, I actually think my obsession with the 80s Lakers will mean I'll enjoy this less than his other ones, all of which I've really liked. Not because I'll be a fanboy upset about the revelations. It's just that I can't believe there's anything about the Showtime Lakers I haven't read about before, from everything about Spencer Haywood to private investigators spying on Norm Nixon to Kareem's many issues. There will certainly be anecdotes or insights that are a bit new but having read every Laker book ever written -- from Heisler to all of Lazenby's great stuff to Ostler and Springer and the players' autobiographies, up to and including Kareem's diary of the 89 season -- most of it for me will be recapping. But Pearlman's style and his own research will make it a lively read.

 

Pearlman is really good at picking book subjects. In hindsight, they all seem like obvious subjects. The '86 Mets. The Cowboys dynasty. Walter Payton. And now the Lakers. And yet he's typically the first one to take them on definitively.

 

The handling of Westhead's firing is different in Pearlman's account than in the book Ostler and Springer wrote many years ago.

According to Ostler and Springer, the decision to fire Westhead was made during that Sunday meeting with Sharman and West, and it wasn't announced because West asked that he be given time to look for some candidates. Westhead was basically "gone" days before Magic's trade demand after the Utah game.

In the SI excerpt, they came out of that Sunday meeting deciding, "Remember what Paul did for us in 1980" without making the decision to fire him, with Magic's locker room outburst a few days later forcing their hand.

I tend to believe Ostler and Springer's version, because it was written only a few years after the event and also includes this quote from Buss immediately after Magic's outburst:

"This is the damndest thing. If we fire Paul now, it will look like Magic caused it. But if we don't fire him, it WILL be because of Magic."

 

Showtime by David Cone would be a very different read.

 

Especially if co written by Andrea Peyser

 

This is why I keep coming back.